


it's nice to have a friend

by GallifreyanFairytale



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Minor Aang/Katara, Song: It's Nice to Have a Friend (Taylor Swift), bc the agni kai between zuko and ozai is briefly talked about, rated t for one mention of wine in the last chapter bc i'm paranoid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:15:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26517307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale
Summary: “Mai?” Ty Lee whispers into the night.“Yeah?”“I’m glad we’re friends.”(inspired by 'it's nice to have a friend' by taylor swift)
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), background Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 28
Kudos: 89





	1. school bell rings, walk me home

**Author's Note:**

> i was listening to taylor swift and then this happened. idk what else to say.

**_school bell rings, walk me home_ **

**_sidewalk chalk, covered in snow_ **

It’s the final day of school before the winter holidays (though _winter_ is a loose concept at best in the Fire Nation), and Mai is staring out the window. The entire world looks grey instead of red for the first time Mai can remember. She’s only eight, but still. The Fire Nation always looks red, because all of the buildings are red and everyone's clothes are red and the sun might be yellow or orange, but it _feels_ red.

But today, everything looks a lot less red. Like the looming clouds sucked the boldness of the red right out of every building and replaced it with something gloomier.

Mai loves it.

She hates the color red - it’s _everywhere_ . She liked it when she was little, but mostly because she thought she had to. Now, she prefers the colors that aren’t so… _much_. Red is a lot. But this new shade of red that looks like someone poured a layer of grey onto it? That’s nice. It’s less.

And then Mai sees it. It looks like snow - Mai _wants_ it to be snow - but it doesn’t snow in the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation is _hot_ , and can only sometimes even be categorized as “cool” in the winter, so there’s no way the little specks falling from the sky outside are snow.

If it’s not snow, there’s only one thing it can be.

_Soldiers are coming home_.

Other kids have begun to notice the ash falling outside too, and soon, the teacher has lost all of the kids’ attention. The ash is coming down heavier now, and if Mai squints _just right_ , she can pretend it’s snowfall instead. Mai knows that some of the other girls in the room right now have fathers and brothers who might be on the ships coming in, but Mai can’t find it in herself to care.

She doesn’t want to walk outside and trudge through ash. She wants to step outside into a winter wonderland like in the stories. But the _stories_ don’t take place in the Fire Nation (obviously, because it snows), so Mai isn’t supposed to want that.

Still, snow sounds magical. Ash? Not so much.

After struggling through the last half hour of the school day, the teacher _finally_ releases all of the students, and they file respectfully out of the classroom. But as soon as they’re through the door of the classroom, the girls are all running through the halls in a futile attempt to be the first one outside to see if they can spot the ships.

All of the girls except for Mai, and a girl whose long brown hair is pulled into a braid. Ty Lee. She’s the one Azula has selected to replace Jia, since Jia had to move when her father was relocated to an Earth Kingdom colony.

Speaking of Azula, the princess was gone from school today. That happens sometimes - Azula will simply not show up, and no one says anything of it. You can’t. Most times, the teacher won’t even call out Azula’s name during attendance when she’s gone. But Azula is the princess, so Mai assumes she must miss school for important Royal Family Business.

Mai turns her attention away from Azula. No reason to think about her if she isn’t here. She turns to Ty Lee instead. “You’re not going to rush out to see the ships?” she asks, sure her tone comes across as bored instead of curious. Curiosity is fatal if you ask the wrong question. If you sound bored about it, that feigns apathy, and if you don’t care, no one hushes you for asking a bad question. They just tell you they don’t know the answer.

Ty Lee shrugs. “I’ve seen ships before, and I don’t have anyone I’m waiting for to come home.”

“Oh.” Mai isn’t sure what else to say. They walk out of the building together. Ty Lee bounces when she walks, Mai notices, like she has too much energy stored up in her body and no way to get it out. She twirls the end of her braid around her finger, and she looks everywhere except for directly at Mai.

A thin layer of ash has covered the ground by the time they step outside, but the amount actually falling from the sky has decreased drastically.

Ty Lee looks at Mai and giggles.

“What?”

“It could almost be snow,” she says as she reaches forward and brushes a few stray ashes from Mai’s hair. Mai’s breath hitches. She only relaxes when Ty Lee has pulled her hand away.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Mai whispers. She looks around them. Through the ash on the ground, Mai can still sort of make out the drawings the younger kids must have done during their recess today. When Mai was their age, she watched as the other kids drew pictures of fire and soldiers and dragons and the sun, but Azula was not an artist, so Mai wasn’t either.

Despite the fact that it isn’t snow, it’s still surprisingly cold out today. Not cold enough for snow, surely, but cold for the Fire Nation. Mai shivers and looks down at her hands. Since Azula isn’t here, she has to walk home today. She should have brought gloves.

“Are you walking home?” Ty Lee asks.

Mai nods.

“Can I walk with you?”

Mai hesitates, then nods again. Ty Lee is Azula’s choice, after all, so Azula shouldn’t be mad at Mai for walking home with her. That doesn’t mean she _won’t_ be mad, though. Azula treats her friends more like property than people. She owns Mai, and Mai is only allowed to hang out with other girls if Azula allows it or if Azula is there too.

Mai doesn’t mind much, though. It’s not like she has any other friends, or would know how to make any other friends if she were given the chance. Besides, Azula is the _princess_. Who needs other friends?

They walk in silence, making footprints in the ash, and Mai is still squinting at the world around her and trying to make it look like snow. It only sort of works. The ash is too dark to be snow, and to Mai’s knowledge, snow doesn’t smell like burning.

Mai shivers again and rubs her hands together. Her fingernails are turning purple already, and she’s vaguely aware that that probably isn’t good. Then again, she gets cold a lot. Her dad says it’s her mom’s fault; Mai’s mom is _always_ cold, even in the Fire Nation. Mai inherited her cold blood.

Mai sees Ty Lee tug off one of her gloves out of the corner of her eye. “Here,” she offers, handing the glove over to Mai. “We can share!”

Mai accepts the glove with a soft _thank you_ and tugs it on her right hand. Her fingers are still a little stiff, but it _does_ help.

“You’re welcome!” The amount of energy Ty Lee has makes Mai’s head spin. Ty Lee skips ahead, then skips back to Mai. She links her arm with Mai’s and Mai has to remind herself that this is how _normal_ friends interact with each other. Azula never touches anyone, unless she’s shoving them out of the way. Mai learned to follow Azula’s lead. She doesn’t push people out of her way, but she doesn’t make a habit of trying to link arms with Azula (or anyone else, for that matter).

“Hey Mai?”

“Yes?”

“Would you want to spend the night at my house?”

_Yes!_ Mai wants to blurt out, but she can’t. Azula would never allow it.

Then again, Azula isn’t here, and they have the next two weeks off of school for the winter holidays. _If_ Azula were to find out, she’d have two weeks to cool down. It’s not the most reassuring thought (Azula can hold a grudge for _years_ ), but Mai really, _really_ , doesn’t want to turn down Ty Lee’s offer.

So for the first time since she met Azula, Mai decides to defy what the princess would tell her to do. “Sure,” she tells Ty Lee. “If it’s alright with our parents.”

\--

The following day, Mai is dropped off at Ty Lee’s house for a sleepover. Her first sleepover that Azula is not involved in.

Ty Lee has six sisters who all look very similar to her. They ask Ty Lee a lot of questions about Mai (“How long have you two been friends?” “Why is she so gloomy?” “Isn’t she the princess’s property?”) and Ty Lee effectively ignores every single jab and leads Mai to her bedroom, her soft hand wrapped around Mai’s wrist. Mai keeps her eyes trained on Ty Lee’s braid, which bounces with every step she takes. Her sisters all have similar braids, but Ty Lee is the only one with a pink ribbon.

Ty Lee lets go of Mai’s wrist once they’re in her room, and she swings the door shut before bouncing over to her bed. Mai hesitantly sets her bag on the floor before crossing the room and sitting down next to Ty Lee.

“What d’you wanna do first?” Ty Lee asks, eyes bright.

Mai shrugs. “Azula usually just tells me what we’re going to do.”

“Oh.” Ty Lee frowns. “Well…” she looks around the room. When her gaze falls on a pink pillow lying on the floor, her face lights up. “What about a blanket fort?!”

Azula had Mai and Jia attempt to build a blanket fort once. She had spent most of the night ordering Mai and Jia around, and nothing they did seemed to be right. Finally, Azula got so mad that she set a blanket on fire and collapsed the fort.

They did not attempt another blanket fort after that.

But Ty Lee wasn’t a firebender, and she and Mai would work _together_ to build a fort, so it shouldn’t be a disaster. Ty Lee and Azula were very different, so maybe building a fort with Ty lee could even be _fun_.

“Sure.”

Ty Lee squealed in excitement. She jumped up, pulled Mai up, and set to work gathering all the blankets and pillows she had in her room. At one point, she darts out of the room, and is back before Mai can even think about following her, carrying a stack of dark red blankets that contrasted the pink decorating Ty Lee’s room.

As Mai expected, this blanket fort building experience is much nicer than her first one. Ty Lee has clearly done this before, but instead of barking orders at Mai, she explains what they’re going to do and then has Mai help her. It isn’t long before they’re arranging pillows and blankets inside of the fort to make it as comfy as possible. And Ty Lee has _so many_ pillows, so it’s pretty comfy, in Mai’s opinion. Not that she has any other blanket forts to compare it to.

Ty Lee dashes out of the room again and comes back with fire gummies and a deck of cards. She hands Mai the cards, and Mai automatically takes them out and begins to shuffle. Azula always makes Mai shuffle when she’s feeling patient enough for a card game (which Mai and Jia usually have to let her win).

Ty Lee pops a gummy into her mouth and then sets the plate down where they can both reach it but it won’t be in the way of their game. “Do you want to play Dragon Breath?”

Last time Mai played that game, Azula had nearly set the deck on fire. She would have if Li and Lo hadn’t come into the room at the right moment to tell the girls it was time for dinner.

“Okay.”

They play Dragon Breath and eat fire gummies until Ty Lee suggests they switch games, and Mai requests Crazy Comet. For some reason, she’s a little surprised that Ty Lee happily agrees. Even if Azula likes an idea Mai suggests, she usually pretends she doesn’t and then pretends she thought of it herself. It’s like she doesn’t want anyone to know Mai can come up with her own ideas. That’s the goal, though, Mai supposes - to make everyone think she’s just the princess’s pet.

But hey, it’s a steady social life. Mai doesn’t have to talk to anyone besides Azula, and she doesn’t have to worry about boys awkwardly confessing crushes to her. No one would dare confess a crush on the princess’s best friend if no one is crushing on the princess herself, and Azula is much too intimidating for any boy to have a crush on her.

At some point, Ty Lee’s mother comes into the room and tells the girls it’s time for bed. She takes the empty plate that had been holding their fire gummies, presses a kiss to Ty Lee’s forehead, and tells them both goodnight.

Azula’s mother hardly looks at them when Mai is at the palace. It’s always Li and Lo who check on them, or other servants if Li and Lo are preoccupied with… whatever they do. Azula’s mother is always by Azula’s brother’s side, like she’s there to keep him company while Azula has friends over. And Mai had only seen Azula’s father once. It was the first time Mai was at the palace. She and Jia were being shown to Azula’s room by Li (or maybe it had been Lo?) and Azula’s father had passed them, trailed by a guard and a man in fancy robes. Li or Lo had bowed politely while Jia and Mai both just looked at each other. Mai had let her eyes dart past Jia and look at Azula’s father, curious as to what he looked like. He met her curiosity with a sharp, cold, stare and a cruel light in his eyes, like Mai had invaded his privacy.

Mai is grateful she hasn’t seen him since.

As she and Ty Lee lay in the blanket fort, still wide awake, Mai replays the scene in her head. She thinks about Azula and her brother in the palace, missing school the previous day for some unknown reason, with mostly servants to keep them company. She wonders if the Fire Lord uses the same cold glare on them if they catch his eye.

“Mai?” Ty Lee whispers into the night.

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad we’re friends.”

Mai smiles because she knows it’s too dark for anyone to see here. “Me too.”

They don’t tell Azula about the sleepover.


	2. light pink sky, up on the roof

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe this fic is just me yearning for a childhood friends to lovers love story, but i think that's valid of me

**_light pink sky, up on the roof_ **

**_sun sinks down, no curfew_ **

The palace seems colder since the last time Mai was here. It’s been over a year since then, and the last time she was here, Azula’s brother had not yet been banished.

The thought makes Mai shudder.

She understands he disrespected the Fire Lord, but she never got the details. She was deemed ‘too young to know’ despite being fourteen. She was too young to know why, exactly, the Fire Lord had challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai, burned the left side of his face when Zuko refused to fight his own father, and banished him and sent him to look for the Avatar - who hasn’t been seen in almost a century - but she wasn’t too young to watch as it happened. That seemed right.

Mai hadn’t  _ watched _ , exactly. She couldn’t. She was in the arena, in the audience next to her parents and a few rows behind Ty Lee, but she couldn’t watch Zuko beg his father for mercy. He was less than a year younger than her, but in that moment, it hit Mai how young they really were. Sure, she would be graduating from the academy soon, but they were  _ children _ . She couldn’t watch him beg on his knees, and she couldn’t watch as Fire Lord Ozai called him a slew of insults and raised his hand to Zuko’s face.

Mai could never admit it to anyone, but she hates Fire Lord Ozai. Maybe Zuko  _ had  _ disrespected him, but Zuko is his  _ son _ . Mai hates anyone that would burn their son’s face and send him on an impossible mission to earn back their love.

As she steps into the palace behind Ty Lee, she prays a silent prayer to Agni that she won’t see the Fire Lord during her visit. She doesn’t know if she’ll be able to keep herself from returning his nasty glare, and that would certainly end in her suffering a fate similar to Zuko’s. Clearly the Fire Lord doesn’t see anything wrong with challenging children to an Agni Kai.

In school, Mai had learned that once, a long time ago, you had to be eighteen in order to participate in an Agni Kai. But Fire Lord Sozin had dissolved that law, citing that anyone who was capable of firebending was capable of participating in an Agni Kai. Mai couldn’t firebend, but that didn’t mean Fire Lord Ozai wouldn’t challenge her. If he could challenge his own son, he could challenge anyone who disrespected him, bender or not.

Mai kept her Agni Kai and anti-Ozai thoughts locked up in the back corner of her brain. She pictured herself hiding them in a golden chest that she locked with a deep red key, and then she pictured herself throwing the key into a volcano so no one would ever find out she’d been thinking things she shouldn’t have been.

Li and Lo lead Mai and Ty Lee to the garden, where Azula is stomping around the perimeter of the turtleduck pond. When she sees Mai and Ty Lee, she stops and runs over to them. “We’re going to play hide and seek,” she tells them. Mai and Ty Lee know better than to argue. “Mai, you seek. Ty Lee and I will hide.” Mai hates being seeker - she’s no good at it - but she nods dutifully. Li and Lo sit by the fountain and knit, watching the girls play. Mai leans against a tree, puts her hands over her eyes, and begins to count.

She finds Azula first, but she doesn’t let Azula know. She sees her hairpiece glinting behind one of the bushes, but she ignores it and looks for Ty Lee instead. Azula hates being found first. It’s easier for everyone if Mai finds her second.

She finds Ty Lee in the branches of one of the trees, and Ty Lee flips herself out of the tree and onto the ground, landing perfectly with her arms in the air. Mai wants to applaud, but she doesn’t for fear of Azula hearing. Instead, she offers Ty Lee a small smile, which Ty Lee returns with a wide grin.

Mai pretends to look around the garden a bit longer before she finds Azula, and Azula has Ty Lee switch to seeker so Mai can hide. Ty Lee bounces over to the tree Mai had stood by while counting and hides her eyes. She begins to count, and Azula takes off.

Mai looks around the garden, but they’ve all hidden in most of the spots here before. Eventually, she decides on hiding behind a statue of Fire Lord Sozin. If Ty Lee circles around the statue, Mai will be found easily, but she’s out of sight from where Ty Lee is currently standing, and Mai needs to be found first anyways.

\--

Azula falls asleep first. It isn’t surprising - she’s a firebender, and firebenders rise with the sun. Mai used to have the same sleep pattern, since her father is a firebender, but once she realized that staying up later meant she was the only one awake in the house, she found ways to fill her time well past sunset.

Once Mai is sure Azula is asleep, she sits up and looks over at Ty Lee. Ty Lee’s eyes are wide open, and she’s staring up at the ceiling. The last bits of sunlight are poking through the windows.

Ty Lee turns to look at Mai, and then sits up too. She glances at the balcony, and Mai nods. Sparing a final look towards Azula to make sure the princess is still fast asleep, Mai stands slowly. Ty Lee does the same. They tiptoe over to the balcony and step outside into the warm evening air. They shut the door behind them silently, and Mai breathes out a sigh of relief. She prefers time with just Ty Lee to time with Azula, but she can’t say that, so she locks it up in the golden chest in her mind.

Ty Lee hops onto the railing and looks down over the city. Mai keeps her feet on the balcony, opting to stand and lean against the railing instead.

“20 Questions?” Ty Lee asks. It’s a game Azula has made them play a few times, during which Mai always ends up having to lie. She’s pretty sure Ty Lee does too.

Mai nods. “You first.”

Ty Lee thinks for a moment, and Mai looks up at the sky. The sun is dipped mostly below the horizon, and the sky around it is a soft pink that reminds Mai of Ty Lee’s bedroom. The pink fades into purple, and that fades into blue across the rest of the sky. In the dark blue, Mai can see some of the stars twinkling.

“Sunrise or sunset?” Ty Lee asks.

“Sunset.” Firebenders might draw their power from the sun, but Mai doesn’t need sunlight to make her knives work. Sure, she needs enough light to see, but the moon is usually bright enough. Sunset means most of the Fire Nation is going to bed, and Mai can allow herself to breathe. “Favorite constellation?”

Ty Lee looks at the sky, even though most of the constellations aren’t fully visible yet. “Lyra,” she finally decides. “The lyre. I like the sound of a harp. It’s a happy instrument.”

Mai is inclined to agree. She looks over at Ty Lee to tell her exactly that, but the words get stuck in her throat when she sees Ty Lee still gazing up at the sky and the pink-orange glow of the setting sun warming her face. She looks pretty. 

No, pretty isn’t the right word.

She looks  _ ethereal _ . 

But Mai is definitely not allowed to look at Ty Lee basking in the sunset light and wonder what it would be like to kiss her, so she locks that passing thought up too. It’s not the first thought Mai has had that centers around kissing a girl, but it’s the first that centers around Ty Lee specifically.

Ty Lee glances over at Mai. “Would you rather travel to the Earth Kingdom or a Water Tribe?”

Mai shouldn’t answer that question. She shouldn’t even take the time to consider it. She should say one of the Earth Kingdom colonies, or refuse to answer, because travelling to another nation is not something that happens. You either get sent to a colony to enforce the laws, or you go to another nation as a soldier, to claim it for the Fire Nation. You don’t  _ travel _ .

Of course, no one is around to hear them. It’s just Mai and Ty Lee, and with only the tip of the sun still peaking above the horizon, most of the firebenders will be either readying themselves for bed or already asleep. So Mai thinks about Ty Lee’s question carefully.

“The Earth Kingdom,” she decides. “I don’t think I would like the cold at the poles.”

Ty Lee nods in agreement. “I  _ would  _ like to see snow, though.” She keeps her voice low.

Mai remembers the day, six years ago, when she and Ty Lee walked home through the ash and Mai pretended it was snow instead. “Me too.”

Ty Lee sighs deeply, and Mai realizes that for the first time since she met Ty Lee, the girl is still. She isn’t swinging her feet back and forth, she isn’t rocking in place, she isn’t even twirling her braid.

“Your turn.”

Mai looks down at her hands. “If you could be any type of bender  _ besides  _ a firebender, what would you be?” It’s another taboo question - firebending is the superior bending and if you insinuate otherwise, you might as well be committing treason.

Ty Lee answers easily, though. “An airbender.” Mai almost thinks she’s thought about the question before, but to suggest that would be rude. Ty Lee pulls her braid into her hands and starts running her fingers over it. “Have you…” her voice gets impossibly quiet, “Have you ever… thought about kissing girls?”

She doesn’t say it in the way Azula would a question like that - sneering, disapproving, daring you to say yes so she can get you in trouble with her father - she asks it like she wants to know if she’s alone or not.

So Mai doesn’t lie, not to Ty Lee. She nods and whispers, “Yes.” She waits a moment. “Have you?”

“Yeah.”

Mai can’t look at Ty Lee, because she’s afraid Ty Lee is tearing up and Mai can’t handle emotions, but also because she’s afraid looking at Ty Lee will throw the overwhelming desire to kiss her in Mai’s face again, and she can’t. They can’t. Not with Azula asleep just inside, not in the Fire Lord’s own palace, and not anywhere in the Fire Nation.

Still, Mai feels Ty Lee’s hand come to rest on hers, saying a thousand words they’re not allowed to say out loud. Mai hears them loud and clear, though. She wishes she could say anything other than, “I know.”

Ty Lee entwines their fingers, but neither of them look at each other. They just keep staring up at the sky.


	3. church bells ring, carry me home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> small warning for referenced underage drinking (it's not much, like i said in the tags, and mai is 19 here so it's not underage everywhere, but i figure i should still put a warning).

**_church bells ring, carry me home_ **

**_rice on the ground looks like snow_ **

The South Pole is far colder than Mai thought it would be, but the sight of the entire place covered in _snow_ erases the cold from her mind. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers. Her breath creates a cloud of steam in the air that dissipates quickly. 

“I never thought I’d see snow,” Ty Lee says. She sounds dazed, the same way Mai feels. Like nothing in the world matters besides taking in the sight before them.

“Me neither.”

They’re travelling with the Kyoshi Warriors to the South Pole for Chief Hakoda’s wedding. Mai hadn’t expected to receive an invitation, but she guesses Zuko might have had something to do with it. Her trip to Kyoshi Island had been set to end the day before the wedding, but Suki offered Mai to stay an extra day so she could travel with them, and Mai had graciously accepted the offer.

Their balloon lands softly in the snow, and Ty Lee grabs Mai’s hand to drag her out. They’ve been dancing around something ever since the war ended, but Ty Lee has been on Kyoshi Island and Mai has been in the palace, helping Zuko wherever she can, so they haven’t seen as much of each other in the past two years as Mai would have liked.

“It’s so cold!” Ty Lee squeals. Her cheeks are pink from the frigid air, and Mai is sure hers are tinted a similar color. Ty Lee reaches down and touches the snow with her bare hands. “Oh, Mai…”

Mai bends down and scoops up a handful of the snow. It stings her fingers, not dissimilar to the way extreme heat would, but she can’t bring herself to drop it. It’s mesmerizing. It’s _snow_.

“I felt the same way the first time I saw snow.” Zuko’s voice interrupts Mai’s thoughts. She looks up to see the Fire Lord grinning, one arm wrapped around Sokka’s waist.

Sokka rolls his eyes. “It’s just _snow_.”

Zuko shoots a disapproving look at his boyfriend.

Mai lets the snow that hasn’t melted yet fall through her fingers, and then she turns to Zuko and pressed her wet hands against his cheeks.

“Hey!” He jumps back and wipes his face. Ty Lee and Sokka both start giggling, and Mai can’t suppress a smile.

Then Ty Lee is throwing her hands around Mai from behind, and Mai stumbles forward. Zuko - the jerk - neglects to help steady her, so she and Ty Lee both go tumbling into the snow. She hears Sokka and Zuko both laughing somewhere above her, and Mai knows they’re distracted, so she grabs Zuko’s leg and yanks it hard enough to topple him over. He brings Sokka down with him.

“Zuko!” Sokka whines. He picks up a handful of snow and throws it at Zuko. Zuko responds by grabbing his own handful of snow and shoving it down the back of Sokka’s coat.

Mai stifles her laughter at Sokka’s overreaction and pushes herself up to her feet before offering a hand to Ty Lee, who allows Mai to pull her up. Zuko and Sokka are still on the ground, throwing snow at each other and pushing each other over.

Mai looks at Ty Lee. “Should we leave them be?”

Ty Lee laughs and says, “That would probably be best.” That’s when Mai notices their hands are still woven together. Ty Lee pulls her towards the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors, who have already made their way over to Bato, Hakoda, Katara, and Aang. Mai follows, hoping Ty Lee won’t let go of her once they arrive.

\--

Mai and Ty Lee stay close to the fire during the reception (or whatever Water Tribe term Sokka had used to describe it) of the wedding, watching the others and pulling their coats tighter around them. Somewhere in the room, a band is playing an upbeat tune.

Katara and Aang are dancing, swinging each other around and laughing when one of them messes up a step. They move in perfect sync for the most part, though, and of course _they_ would. Katara and Aang are the kind of couple who seemed _destined_ to be together, like the princes and princesses in the stories Mai’s mother read to her when she was little.

Zuko and Sokka are sitting next to each other across the room from where Mai and Ty Lee are, talking in hushed voices. Zuko is looking at Sokka like he’s the best thing in the world, and Mai feels her heart warm at the fact that Zuko found someone so good for him. They’d come out to each other at the same time, after the war had ended and Zuko had been crowned and eradicated the laws outlawing homosexuality, but Mai had been worried Zuko would still be so fixated on doing everything exactly perfect that he wouldn’t allow himself to fall in love. She was glad Sokka hadn’t let that happen. 

Bato and Hakoda are talking to Suki and a few of the other warriors, their hands firmly around each other. They’re a good couple - Mai is sure of it. Sokka talks highly of Bato, and Zuko had read Mai Sokka’s excited letter announcing the engagement.

Ty Lee leans her head on Mai’s shoulder, and warmth spreads through Mai’s body. The song changes paces, fading into something slow, and Mai decides that tonight, she’s not going to be scared. 

“Do you want to dance with me?” she whispers.

Ty Lee jumps up. “ _Yes!_ ”

Mai hears herself laugh as Ty Lee takes her hand and leads her to the dance floor. Mai learned how to slow dance a long time ago, same as Ty Lee, but they’d always been partnered up with boys. They look at each other for a moment, neither wanting to ask aloud which part they should take, before Mai hesitantly places her hands on Ty Lee’s waist. Ty Lee reaches up and places her hands on Mai’s shoulders. Then, she steps closer so it’s her forearms resting on Mai’s shoulders, hands clasped together behind Mai’s neck.

They sway to the music, and Mai notices that Sokka and Zuko are on the dance floor now too. Zuko catches her eye, and he doesn’t seem surprised that she’s dancing with Ty Lee. He smiles, and Mai is pretty sure he’s telling her, _“You deserve to fall in love too.”_

Mai nods slightly, and then Zuko is looking back at Sokka. Sokka whispers something that makes Zuko blush, and Mai figures she doesn’t need to worry about Zuko. She spent so much time worrying about him after the coronation that it had become second nature, but he has Sokka now, and Mai knows Sokka would die before he let anything bad happen to Zuko.

Mai looks back to Ty Lee. The candlelight is flickering in her eyes and she’s wearing the softest smile Mai has ever seen. Mai is taken back to all those years ago on the balcony of Azula’s bedroom when Ty Lee was looking at the sun and Mai wanted nothing more than to kiss her.

Mai hasn’t had much to drink - only a glass of wine - but she’ll blame that on what she does next, because it’s either the wine or the way Ty Lee is looking at her, but Mai can’t take it any longer. She’s tired of dancing around feelings she’s allowed to have now.

She leans forward and presses her lips to Ty Lee’s.

They stop swaying, and Ty Lee moves her hands so they’re cupping Mai’s face, her thumb stroking Mai’s cheek gently.

They break apart slowly, and Mai can’t stop looking at Ty Lee. She’s the prettiest person in the world, Mai is sure of it. Her braid begins at the base of her head today instead of on top of it, and she’s pulled her bangs back with pink hair pins. Her face is flushed.

“Wow,” she whispers.

_Wow._ Mai silently agrees. Wow. Mai wants to stay in the moment forever, studying Ty Lee’s face with soft music in the background, knowing that their friends are here and safe and for one moment, they don’t need to worry about anything.

“Can we do this?” Ty Lee asks, her voice almost shaking.

For most of her life, Mai would have said _No, it isn’t worth the risk_. But the war is over, Ozai is gone, and Mai’s parents don’t love her anymore anyways. She chose her side - Zuko’s side - and they didn’t like that. Now, she’ll choose Ty Lee, and they won’t like that either, but they’re hardly her family at this point. Her family is Zuko and Sokka and the Kyoshi Warriors and _Ty Lee_.

Mai moves one hand up to cup Ty Lee’s cheek. She nods. “Yes. We can do this.”

Ty Lee giggles, and Mai can feel the giddiness radiating off her body. It makes Mai smile, and Ty Lee pulls her down into another kiss.

\--

Mai has never felt this way before. She hasn’t _allowed_ herself to feel this way before. But with Ty Lee’s hand firmly around hers as they walk through _real snow_ to the inn, Mai lets herself feel everything. She lets herself accept that the war is over and Ty Lee is hers and she’s really, truly, happy. The cold is making her fingers go numb, and she’s vaguely aware her father would disown her again if he knew, and she’s out of breath, but she’s never felt happier.

They plop down on the bed in Mai’s room and Mai lets herself just hold Ty Lee, arms wrapped around her torso, face buried in her neck. She breathes in deeply. Ty Lee smells like flowers and strawberries.

“Mai?” Ty Lee mumbles after a few minutes of the two sitting in silence.

“Yes?”

“It’s snowing.”

Mai glances out the window and Ty Lee is right. Snowflakes have begun to fall softly outside - _real_ snowflakes. Mai lets a gasp fall from her lips. It’s prettier than she thought it would be, and the full moon provides enough light that the snowflakes seem to glow like falling stars.

They watch the snow for long enough that Mai loses track of time, only realizing how late it must be when Ty Lee yawns. She moves to take her hair down, but Mai stops her.

“Let me.”

Ty Lee drops her hands into her lap. “Okay.”

Mai unties the pink ribbon at the bottom of Ty Lee’s braid and sets it aside before she carefully begins to unbraid the strands. It’s calming, her fingers delicately unweaving Ty Lee’s hair and feeling how soft it is. Mai resists the urge to just run her fingers along the braid like she’s seen Ty Lee do so often. Once she finishes, she removes the pins keeping Ty Lee’s bangs out of her face. Ty Lee turns to look at her.

“Mai…”

She doesn’t need to finish. Mai knows. There’s so much to say, so many years of having to hide and suppress every thought that didn’t fit Fire Nation standards, so many years of dancing around Azula and shamefully wishing it could just be the two of them, so many years of thinking they would spend the rest of their lives secretly dreaming of a world where things could be different.

Mai takes Ty Lee’s hand in hers. “I know,” she whispers. She brings Ty Lee’s hand to her lips and brushes a kiss against her knuckles.

There’s so much to say, but for tonight, they just hold each other and thank Agni that they _can_.

**Author's Note:**

> if you have any mailee or zukka oneshot requests, feel free to DM me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/H0LL0WKAIDAM) because i am always looking for inspiration


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